Tag: Justice for Children Initiative

TuesdayLawyer Keresticioğlu stated that even after the amendments of the Anti-Terror Law, children still remain in detention under charges of “membership of an illegal organization” and “carrying explosives”. The lawyer demanded amendments of the Turkish Criminal Law for the release of the children.

Source: Istanbul – BİA News Center
24 August 2010
“It is presented as if crucial amendments have been made in the Anti-Terror Law but with these laws the children will remain detained in prison”.
Lawyer Filiz Kerestecioğlu points out that the amendments made in the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) are not sufficient for the release of children in prison. The amendments’ application confirms the lawyer’s concerns.
The Istanbul Deputy of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Sebahat Tuncel, addressed the parliament with the problem that children have not been released from prison despite the legal amendments. A hundred children were released pending trial after the enforcement of the amendments. Tuncel asked the Minister of Justice, Sadullah Ergin, why the other children, some of them in prisons in the East of the country, were not released. Continue reading →

Amnesty International, while welcoming legal amendments and the release of some imprisoned children, said that children were subjected to excessive and disproportionate ill-treatment by security officers.

Source: ANF LONDON

Amnesty International (AI) while welcoming the legal amendment and release of the children said that, according to first hand information gained from the imprisoned children, these were mistreated and subjected to excessive and disproportionate force by the security forces. However, no police officer has been investigated or prosecuted regarding these allegations.

AI also urged the Turkish government to respect their absolute prohibition of torture and declare that they will conduct a proper and thorough investigation regarding torture allegations. AI also stated that although the children will be released other defendants over 18 will continue to be charged with terror crimes merely for participating in a demonstration and their unfair trial will go on.

A 10-year old Kurdish boy was detained in Yuksekova district of Hakkari and taken to the police station where he was mistreated

Source: ANF HAKKARI

After the amendments done in the anti-terror law so that children throwing stones to the police would not be arrested or imprisoned, reality remains unchanged.

A 10-year old Kurdish boy was detained in Yuksekova district of Hakkari and taken to the police station where he was mistreated. The father says his son was begging him to get him out of the station with these words: “Dad! They are killing me. Save me, please!”

Police attacked a demonstration in Yuksekova held on 27 July that protested against the lynch attempts and attacks on the Kurds in Inegol and Hatay. Riot police using tear gas and water canons arrested several protestors including 10-year old D. Ö. He was taken to Yuksekova security directorate where he was beaten up for 10 hours. When the father Fikret Ö. was in the station looking for his son, he found his son’s face covered with bruises.

KHRP commends today’s reforms passed by the Turkish Parliament concerning the application of anti-terror laws against children in Turkey, which sends an important signal that the current practice of treating children as terrorists is incompatible with international human rights norms and is not conducive to creating a space for a democratic resolution to the Kurdish issue. KHRP urges the government to allocate sufficient human and financial resources and expertise to ensure not only adequate implementation, but to more widely confront the widespread criminalisation and detention of children.

Convicted of terrorism, a Kurdish teenager is serving a seven-year, nine-month prison sentence in Turkey’s Prison E in Diyarbakir.

Source: Los Angeles Times

On October 9, 15-year-old Berivan Sayaca left her parents’ home in Batman in southeast Turkey to pay a visit to her aunt. She never came home. Convicted of terrorism, a Kurdish teenager is serving a seven-year, nine-month prison sentence in Turkey’s Prison E in Diyarbakir. On October 9, 15-year-old Berivan Sayaca left her parents’ home in Batman in southeast Turkey to pay a visit to her aunt. She never came home.

According to news reports, Turkish authorities charged that Sayaca stopped at a demonstration organized by the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, known by the acronym PKK, and threw stones at police. Her advocates deny that she attended the protest and say she simply passed through the crowd. They say the rally was coordinated not by the PKK but by the recently banned Kurdish political party Peace and Democracy, or BDP.

In densely populated and economically suffering southeast Turkey, pro-Kurdish protests are commonplace. On some occasions, youths have thrown stones and gasoline bombs at police, who respond with tear gas and water cannons, the BBC reported. Continue reading →

Talk with Ms Milena Buyum, Campaigner on Turkey for Amnesty International and Ms Fatma Unsal, Chairperson of ‘Justice for Children Initiative’

There will also be a concert, with Aygul Erge, singer-song writer, and a Film Screening: ‘Taslanan Vicdanlar/Brutal Consciences’ by Cenk Örtülü & Zeynel Koç Turkish and Kurdish with English subtitles, Running time 50 minutes.

Rojwomen

We are a Kurdish grassroots women’s rights movement established in 2004 and based in London. Roj Women has a membership of hundreds of women from different countries both in Europe and in the Kurdish regions of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey.